Kopikatsu said:
Anyway, I have absolutely zero idea of both how to hack systems, and also how to encrypt information, so I can't really side with one group or the other on this...but I default to siding with Sony, if only because in an ideal world, we should be able to leave our doors unlocked without fear of being raped and murdered in the middle of the night. Then have the corpse kicked. Over and over and over.
Not an analogy that quite fits.
Some societies do have an open-door culture, where people don't bother to lock their doors, and might even leave keys in their cars, either because your grounds are large enough that you can easily trace who has access to your stuff, or because a town is small enough, or because the destitute are so well cared for that crimes of desperation are a rare thing (compare the low-income communities of Canada with similar regions of the US). In such societies, you can leave your door open on the basis that
you have nothing special to steal.[footnote]Most of us
don't own anything special, or among the few special things we do own, they are unique to ourselves, are associated with us by those who know us, can be identified and connected to us, and in some cases are even insured.[/footnote]
But even in such open-door communities, there will remain incidents that will require a degree of security despite communal conventions.[footnote]
Security being anything from locks, identification marks and theft insurance (enough to keep out the honest) to guard dogs, spikey gates and cameras (enough to thwart the determined), to vaults and hired goons with shotguns (enough to keep out expert criminals and enemy covert operations.)[/footnote] They are, those whose exceptional assets might prove too tempting, and those with enemies.
Sony has both, being a multi-national corporation that not only has huge assets (only one of which is private data of customers, which it keeps in trust), but also enemies, both in the form of rival companies who compete with Sony in common markets, and disgruntled associates whom Sony has wronged or treated inappropriately.[footnote]Sony's history of litigious bullying, questionable quality assurance and poor customer service extends into the past much further than the debacle with GeoHot. There are many, many people, sometimes in groups, that would love to see the Sony name fall to disgrace.[/footnote] Some of these foes would be willing to hire experts to trash Sony's ability to conduct business.
And Sony should be appropriately prepared for the contingency eventuality of an attack. Considering some of the assets they hold are yours (assuming you are a customer of Sony's), such security concerns are a responsibility
to you.
Wouldn't it have been better to just email Sony's CEO with the information? Not to mention LulzSec's claim of Sownage being 'The beginning of the end for Sony'
Nope. Because without consequences, Sony's CEO wouldn't have even gotten the mail, it having been processed by his mail reading/parsing minions, probably one or two of the CEO's lesser clerks. Complains and concerns through normal channels of large companies tend to go unaddressed unless enough people voice the same concern, and even then, Sony has been known in the past to resist catering to a mere written grievance.
By a grey-hat implementation of the hack, these guys
made it a problem that requires attention, and a complaint that will be voiced by a large group, namely anyone who sees their name on the list, and is concerned about privacy.
But an SQL injection vulnerability is not merely a security issue, as it is also a error-trapping and user-proofing issue. A personal website of an individual should be resistant to insertion attacks of this kind, since a packet transfer error, or a frustrated user can inadvertently break the system (the means by which the hack was implemented). And the fact that private data of other persons were stored in plaintext is like leaving an unpopular ministry's collection plate in plain sight, in a town that thinks the church is heretical.
Shycte said:
Criminals with cause are still criminals.
So said the House of Lords to King George regarding those pesky new-world colonists. No state has ever had its revolution sanctioned by its administration.
238U.
EDIT: Posted prematurely. Fixed for grammar.
